Reset Support Needed!

[guestdvp]

Don't know about you all...but on the day after Thanksgiving, I'm feeling a bit discouraged and am in desperate need of a reset!!  I discovered the Whole30 a few months back and although I wasn't ready to dive right in, I did complete 30 days of no sugar, carbs or alcohol and felt GREAT!  And I have to say, it was actually easier than I had expected.  That being said, I didn't take time to do a formal reset, and now I'm right back to where I started - a slave to sugar, carbs and alcohol and feeling a discouraging loss of control.  Just finished half of Food Freedom and have decided it's time for a reset.

Sooo...I'm introducing myself today because the first time around I didn't take advantage of the support on the forum and decided it's time that I need it!  I've embarked on a reset a few times over the past month and have crashed and burned in the second week.  So I'm here looking for encouragement and advice from others at the same place in their lives.  First - any recommendations for getting over that hump and making the first commitment to start.  Second, any advice for sticking with it.  And third - is there a users manual for this forum?  I'm honestly not very savvy with this sort of thing and get a bit overwhelmed by the volume of (great) content.  How do you all make the most of this tool?  Do you just come in here and browse daily?  Or do you follow certain things?  How to best keep on top of conversations you've started or others you're interested in?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Looking forward to getting connected!

[insidepower]

guestpvd, i'm new here.  and i understand and feel your pain.  i'm sure you've heard this a million times, but i invite you to hear it for the first time ever right now.  don't beat yourself up.  we spend so much of our time in the negative, we lose touch with how we are pushing ourselves forward.  despite all of your mishaps, you have not given up.  you keep trying, and that is worth everything.  

i don't have any great suggestions, except to pray, meditate and listen to yourself.  we know what's right, but bad habits, food addiction, psychological warfare have gotten the best of us.  and somehow even when we know how detrimental it all is, we keep ourselves in a negative place because it feels more comfortable, even though i KNOW it's uncomfortable.  be patient with yourself.  and don't be discouraged when you're not.  treating ourselves with love and kindness is a practice, so don't expect everything to change in one swoop.  

i'm here with you.  and i'm making the same mistakes you are.  and it hurts.  and my body is in crisis.  and i want to do better.

so, what i started doing a few weeks ago was to incorporate good foods into my diet, instead of demanding myself to cut out all of the bad things.  the first thing?  i ate an apple everyday.  and if i forgot one day, i din't beat myself up, i just ate one the next day.  and apples have become a regular occurrence.  and now i'm pretty close to eating a salad everyday, adding a little flax seed and moringa on top.  and when i don't miss it, i feel it.  so i can only imagine how good it's going to feel when whole30 is in effect!

and having read 75% of it starts with food.  i'm ready.  i need the reset.  and i want to give this special gift to my body.  it has been doing everything it could to keep me healthy despite what i've plied into it.  and now i'm ready to take care of it.  (and i'm ready to not be slave to how food corporations have co-opted our bodies to make trillions of dollars off of us)

i'm starting Whole30 on Monday, November 28th.  I'll be back home, and ready.  It's going to take me through the holidays.  But I'm ready.  There's not another Christmas cookie, cake, or rummed up egg nog that will make me feel better.  i'm ready to feel better.

I don't know if you'll be ready to start on Monday, but whenever you are, I'll be here.

 

[ShannonM816]

Hi, @guestpvd -- it's actually pretty common to have more trouble getting started on a second round of Whole30 than the first time. This blog post talks about it and has a few tips.

For the forum stuff, if you're looking for something specific, like if a specific ingredient is compliant, or on the go breakfast ideas, or what people do for pre- or post-workout meals, the easiest way to find it is actually to Google Whole30 plus whatever you're looking for -- it seems to work better than the in-forum search feature. Sometimes, if you're not getting results from the Whole30 site, you can Google Whole30 forum plus whatever you're looking for and get more results from this page.

If there's a discussion you want to follow, there's a button up at the top right side of every discussion that says Follow -- click on that and you should get notifications when anyone posts a reply to that topic. You should also get a notification when someone quotes a post you've made, or tagged you in a post (@ symbol squished up with your user name).

If you have questions about how to do anything on the forum, please post and ask. If you're not used to forums, it can be a little overwhelming, and even if you've used other forums, they can all be a little different, so it's normal to not know all the ins and outs of how it works.

[guestdvp]

this is great - thanks for your responses!

Shannon - in terms of making the most of the forum...should i just continue to start new conversations on different topics, or is there one spot you recommend i focus on to keep a running conversation of support as i look for daily support during my first 30 days?

[ShannonM816]

Typically, the Join the Whole30 section ends up being group discussions of people starting around the same time. You could continue posting here in this conversation if you want regardless of when you're starting and people may join in, or if you know you're going to commit to starting on a particular date, you could either look for other people already posting who are starting around that time, or start your own conversation and include the date in the topic so people joining around that date will be more likely to join in.

If you want a place for just your thoughts -- to keep a food log, for instance, or just to record how you're feeling throughout your Whole30 -- you could start a new post in the Whole30 Log section, and just keep replying to that log each day. Those posts are less likely to have other people join in -- although they can, there's nothing that keeps them from it--  and they're technically not moderated, although if a moderator notices something about it that they feel should be pointed out, they may jump in from time to time.

If you have very specific questions that you can't find answers to, it's best to figure out which of the subforums it fits best in and post there, with a descriptive topic (in other words, don't just put "need help" in the topic -- say, "looking for a recipe for _____" or "help with always being hungry" or whatever your question is). If you go to the main page of the forum, you can scroll down and see all the different sub-forums. If you have a few questions, you can lump them all together in one post, you don't have to make separate posts for each one -- if they don't all seem to fit together, like if you have a question about working out, and about whether a certain ingredient is okay -- you can lump those together, and the Troubleshooting section is probably the best place for something like that.

 

[CCLaymon]

GuestPVD and Indside,  there are a group of us that started Monday, and you can find us here:  Enough excuses! Starting 11/21!!

I had a very successful first Whole 105, followed by 2 other Whole 30s. It's been about a year since I did one, and I'm right back where I started, so I understand your frustration. I think this is very tough to do without accountability and encouraging friends. Come join us!

 

[guestdvp]

thanks to all for your advice!  i'll head over to the 11/21 group and start chatting

[insidepower]

Thanks CCLaymon, I'm starting my first day today.

So will start a log as Shannon suggested.

The one thing that worries me about your posting, especially with all of the success is the ending up back where you started.  I know it's a process, and I wish you the best.  For me, I've lost 40-50lbs at least 3-4 times in my life.  I can lose the weight.  Though this time will be the toughest, given the perimenopause.  But, my point is, this time around, I HAVE to learn maintenance.  I know how to lose weight.  I need to know how to keep it off, and sustain a healthy life balance consistently.

[guestdvp]

46 minutes ago, insidepower said:

Thanks CCLaymon, I'm starting my first day today.

So will start a log as Shannon suggested.

The one thing that worries me about your posting, especially with all of the success is the ending up back where you started.  I know it's a process, and I wish you the best.  For me, I've lost 40-50lbs at least 3-4 times in my life.  I can lose the weight.  Though this time will be the toughest, given the perimenopause.  But, my point is, this time around, I HAVE to learn maintenance.  I know how to lose weight.  I need to know how to keep it off, and sustain a healthy life balance consistently.

i'm feeling EXACTLY the same way!!!  sounds like that is the reason Food Freedom was written.  I'm about half way through it and to been totally honest, i'm still a nervous.  sounds like a GREAT way to live long term...but it also says that part of the process is almost always going to be falling off the wagon and ending up starting with another whole30.  and i know you learn something from every rodeo...but i also dread the idea of putting in all of this effort over and over only to end up falling again.  would welcome input or insights from any other members or moderators reading this, as i'm sure we're not the only ones thinking it.  or perhaps there's another conversation on this topic in this forum you can point us to for additional insights?